Amid the ongoing negotiation between Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress, former Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday assured his party's MLAs that they will ultimately form the government in Maharashtra.
A meeting of all the newly-elected BJP MLAs of Maharashtra was held in Mumbai on Thursday where state BJP president Chandrakant Patil and Fadnavis addressed the legislators. The meeting was held to discuss the future course of action.
Fadnavis assured the MLAs that they will ultimately form the government in the state, sources said. The MLAs were also told that they will be called to Mumbai during government formation and until then they must go to their respective constituencies and tell the people that the BJP will return to power.
BJP leader Ashish Shelar said the meeting was addressed by Patil who told the MLAs that the party is keeping a close watch over the ongoing political drama over the formation of the government in the state.
Patil reportedly told them that elections will be held over 90,000 booths across Maharashtra and therefore, all of them should get to work.
All the party MLAs have also been directed to visit the areas affected by rain and focus on helping the affected people, Shelar said.
Earlier, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Congress and Shiv Sena got together to discuss a Common Minimum Programme (CMP) for a coalition government.
The leaders of the three parties have finalised the draft of CMP for a coalition government in Maharashtra after several rounds of consultations over the last two days and the same will be submitted to their respective party presidents.
President's Rule was imposed in the state on Thursday after Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari's report to Centre that no stable government was possible in Maharashtra under the current political scenario.
Shiv Sena and BJP contested the recently-held assembly elections together but failed to reach an agreement for government formation. The Shiv Sena's demand of 50-50 government formula, asking for the chief minister's post of two and half years was not accepted by the BJP.
After BJP failed to stake claim to form the government, the Shiv Sena has tried to enlist the support of NCP and Congress for an alliance government.
Since Shiv Sena has 56 seats in the Maharashtra Assembly, way below the half-way mark of 144, it will need both the NCP's 54 and Congress' 44 legislators to reach the magic number.
